Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Jerusalem was ranked as the world's seventh-best city in the World's Best Awards 2026 list in a survey published on Tuesday by the highly esteemed U.S. travel magazine Travel + Leisure. Israel's capital also topped the rankings as the best city in the Middle East and North Africa. Running for 31 consecutive years, this year's survey registered more than 661,000 votes by roughly 207,000 readers, across more than 10,088 total properties that include cities, hotels, cruise lines and more,...
(JNS) — Israeli Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strook called on Monday for building Jewish communities throughout all of Judea and Samaria, including in Palestinian Authority-administered areas. Strook, a member of Israel’s Security Cabinet, told Arutz Sheva that the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reversed what she described as much of the damage caused by the Oslo Accords signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s, as well as the 2005 disengagement from northern Samaria. However, St...
(JNS) — Israel recently shared intelligence with the United States indicating that Iran was considering a new plot to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to a report published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal. The report, citing people familiar with the matter, said the intelligence represented a potential escalation in the confrontation between Washington and Tehran. According to the newspaper, U.S. officials had not previously been aware of the specific intelligence provided by Israel. The Israeli embassy in Washington d...
(JNS) - Israeli pianist and former Hamas hostage Alon Ohel performed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz on Saturday as part of the United States' 250th Independence Day celebrations. Ohel was invited by American singer-songwriter John Ondrasik, known professionally as Five for Fighting, to join him in performing the song "Superman" on the carrier's flight deck during the central holiday events tied to the International Naval Review 250 in New York City. The USS Nimitz, which has been in...
(JNS) — The American military struck dozens of targets across Iran overnight in the fourth round of attacks on the Islamic Republic within a week, U.S. Central Command said early on Monday. Precision munitions were deployed against “dozens of targets at multiple locations” to degrade Tehran’s ability to disrupt international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, CENTCOM said. The targets included Iranian air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats, according to the statement. U.S. fighter aircraf...
(JNS) — Israel was scheduled to send a joint Foreign Ministry-Israel Defense Forces delegation to Venezuela on Tuesday to assist recovery efforts after powerful earthquakes there killed more than 1,700 people and left thousands homeless. The mission, ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, was approved following a National Security Council review to coordinate the Israeli agencies involved and address the diplomatic and logistical challenges of operating in a country that has had no formal rel...
(JNS) — The Gush Etzion Regional Council in Judea has signed an agreement with Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry that aims to provide assistance to local authorities that are at the center of international delegitimization and boycott campaigns, the ministry said on Thursday. Ministry director-general Avi Cohen-Scali, together with the ministry’s senior leadership, paid a visit to the Gush Etzion area south of Jerusalem on the previous day to hear about the many challenges facing area residents. The signing with...
(JNS) — Mass funeral ceremonies for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are set to begin on Saturday, July 4, more than four months after he was eliminated in the opening Israeli Air Force strikes of “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury,” regime outlets said. The multi-day funeral, which state media claimed is expected to draw up to 20 million mourners, will begin when Khamenei’s body will lie in state at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla Mosque. The ceremonies will continue through Monday with a funeral procession along a six-mile route, fo...
(JNS) — New York City politicians denounced a Nazi swastika that was carved into a parked car on the Upper East Side of Manhattan—reportedly a vehicle in which an Israeli flag was visible. Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City who has been accused of Jew-hatred frequently and whose wife has apologized for past social media activity, including apparently lauding the Oct. 7 attacks, stated that the “swastika carved into a car on the Upper East Side is a despicable act of antisemitism.” “It is a hateful attack of intimidation on our Jewish ne...
(JNS) — The Israel Antiquities Authority announced that it is joining an international, European Union-funded research project that will use artificial intelligence, chemical analysis and other advanced technologies to investigate one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls: where they were produced and copied. The five-year project, titled “Tracing Scribes and Scrolls,” has received a €2.5 million ($2.9 million) Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. It is led by Professor Mladen Popović of the Universi...
(JNS) - U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday urged people to "never forget" the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as the Jewish state marked 1,000 days since the Hamas-led massacre. "1000 days ago, Hamas monsters stormed out of Gaza & into Israel & massacred 1200 men, women & children-butchering them viciously taking 251 people hostage," Huckabee tweeted. "We should never forget the victims & should keep asking 'how did such a thing happen?'" the envoy added. Some 6,000...
(JNS) — Iran has no plans to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit nuclear sites targeted during the recent war, a spokesman for its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, a day after U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Tehran had agreed to do so. “We neither had a meeting with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, nor do we have any plans for the agency to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities that were damaged as a result of the military aggression by the United States and the Zionist regime,” spokesp...
(JNS) — More than 700 rabbis from across the United States have signed an open letter urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to apologize for referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as “monsters,” arguing that the rhetoric endangers American Jews. The appeal came as a new poll found that most Jewish New Yorkers believe the normalization of anti-Zionism is fueling antisemitism in the city. Among the signatories are 176 rabbis from New York, 96 from New Jersey, 76 from California and 53 from Florida, along with hundr...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 17 marked the death of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former leader of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty, who died in 1994 at the age of 92. “On the [Hebrew date of] 3rd of Tammuz, I miss the Rebbe of Lubavitch—a towering spiritual leader who saw in every Jew a mission, faith, and infinite strength,” Netanyahu tweeted. “The light in his eyes, his love for the people of Israel, and his call never to despair continue to illuminate our path to this day. I will always remember my moments w...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday sharply rebuked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after he accused “Zionism” of threatening Turkey’s survival, calling the Turkish leader a “dictator” who persecutes opponents and backs jihadist groups. In a post on X, the ministry said that Erdoğan, who “persecutes political opponents, imprisons journalists, massacres Kurds, occupies the territory of Cyprus and backs jihadist groups is now attacking the Middle East’s only democracy,” adding that Israel had “extended its hand in peace to Le...
(JNS) - Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, considered to be the father of the Kinetic Movement in modern art, died on Sunday at the age of 98, the Agam Museum announced. Agam, who was awarded the Israel Prize for Visual Arts in April, was known for works that incorporated movement, light, color and viewer interaction. A public memorial ceremony was held on Monday at the Agam Museum in the central city of Rishon Letzion, followed by the funeral, which was scheduled to depart from the plaza of the...
(JNS) — The Islamic Republic of Iran must rein in its terrorist proxies in Lebanon, U.S. President Donald Trump insisted on Sunday, without naming Hezbollah. “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization is a “malignant cancer,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said earlier on Sunday, notin...
(JNS) — The Islamic Republic won the “2026 Iran War,” according to the Wikipedia page for the conflict. But when the crowd-sourced encyclopedia, which has a documented history of anti-Israel and antisemitic entries, cites news reports in a footnote ostensibly to support the claim that Iran won, it draws reader attention to sources that state that Iran wasn’t decimated or emerged in a better position in some ways. Not that it won. “So, who actually won?” states an Indian Express article, which is the first reference in the Wikipedia footnote. “T...
(JNS) — Keir Starmer on Monday resigned as Britain’s prime minister and leader of the U.K. Labour Party, seven weeks after suffering a defeat in the May 7 local elections. Speaking outside 10 Downing Street on Monday morning, Starmer says he spoke to King Charles III and informed him of his decision to resign, the BBC reported. Starmer said the Labour Party asked him whether he was best placed to lead it into the next general election. He said he “heard the answer” to that question and “accepts that answer with good grace”. The outgoing premier...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Thursday that he would be cutting ties with the office of E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas “until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state.” Kallas “has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel,” Sa’ar tweeted, responding to reports that the European official, during a closed-door meeting, likened Jerusalem’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa u...
(JNS) - National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Friday called for a dramatically intensified Israeli military response against Lebanon following a Hezbollah drone attack that killed four IDF soldiers in Southern Lebanon. "For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn," Ben-Gvir posted on X. The remarks came hours after the military announced that four IDF soldiers, including Lt. Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, commander of the 52nd...
(JNS) - Cape Verde winger Hélio Varela, who plays for Israeli Premier League club Maccabi Tel Aviv, scored with his first touch after coming off the bench in a 2-2 World Cup group-stage draw against Uruguay in Miami on Sunday evening local time. Varela, 24, found the net in the 61st minute, moments after entering the match, helping Cape Verde secure a point. Born in Portugal, he represents Cape Verde at the international level. Israel's Foreign Ministry and Maccabi Tel Aviv highlighted the...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords showed there is “genuine respect” for the Jewish state across the region, Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said on Tuesday. Defrin opened his remarks to the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem by telling attendees he wanted to share “something more personal: my perspective on where we are today and why, after everything we’ve witnessed, I am very optimistic.” “Israel is a small country, living in a very difficult neighborhood,” he said. “As Israelis, we...
(JNS) - The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund Board of Directors approved a budget of four million shekels (~$1.3 million) to upgrade the Nova Memorial Site and the Iron Swords Forest in Israel's northwestern Negev, the organization said on Thursday. Both sites have become national memorial spaces in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Nova Memorial Site alone attracting more than a quarter of a million visitors during the first four months of 2026, according...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the peace deal with the Iranian regime had been completed. “I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the U.S. Naval blockade,” the president stated just before 5:30 p.m. in Washington. “Ships of the world, start your engines. Let the oil flow.” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government has served as a key mediator, wrote on X that the United States and Iran had reached a peace d...
